of peace should give
him the requisite means of devoting to the subject his undivided
attention. That the promise was originally drawn from him by the urgent
influence of his counsellors, especially Von Stein and Hardenberg, there
is every reason to believe. That he should have been inclined,
unsolicited, to limit his own power, is more than can ordinarily be
expected of monarchs. The bad love power because it gratifies their
selfish lusts; the good, who really wish the weal of their subjects, can
easily persuade themselves that the more freely they can use their
power, the better it will be for all concerned. But, for whatever
reasons, the pledge was given; yet, though Frederick William reigned
thirty years after giving it, he never fulfilled the pledge. It may be
that, had he done so, the party divisions which now agitate the land
would not have been avoided. Conservatives might have complained that he
had yielded too much to the unreasonable demands of an unenlightened
populace; Liberals might have complained that he had not yielded enough;
at all events, the opposing principles, of the divine right of kings,
and of popular self-government, whatever form they might have taken,
would have divided public sentiment. This may have been; but even more
certain is it that the failure on the part of the monarch to carry out a
promise solemnly and repeatedly made, a promise which he never would
have made unless believing that it would gratify his people, could not
but lead ultimately to a deep disaffection on the part of the people.
His course resembled too much the equivocating prophecies of the witches
in Macbeth; he kept the word of promise to the ear, and broke it to the
hope. It is then not strange that many should have found their faith in
royalty weakened, and come to the conclusion that whatever was to be
gained in the point of popular government must be secured by insisting
on it as a right which the Government _nolens volens_ should be required
to concede.

Such, in general terms, is the animus of the two political parties of
Prussia. Turning to a more particular consideration of the historical
progress of events, we find that the first movement toward a freer
development of popular character was made by Frederick the Great.
Throughout his life he was inclined, theoretically, to favor a
republican form of government; and, although he was no friend of sudden
changes, and did not think that the time had come for a ra